


i'm (not) scared

by sinpai_kun



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: F/F, Haunted Houses, Something like that I guess, high school au???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-26 18:48:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19011724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinpai_kun/pseuds/sinpai_kun
Summary: a one-shot based off the "haunted dinner" vr clips in which heejin tries to be brave so her crush can (finally) notice her





	i'm (not) scared

**Author's Note:**

> i got carried away with this lol, pls enjoy

  this was, quite possibly, a decision that would sit at the top of heejin’s "most insane and stupid decisions" list. maybe that list wouldn’t exist if she hadn’t been friends with chaewon and jiwoo. but then heejin would’ve lived a dull, boring life and there would’ve been great memories that would’ve probably never happened. but even if jeon heejin lived a boring life with no fun, at least she’d still fall for a certain kim hyunjin. how was she supposed to ignore the taller girl and just nearly everything about her?

(maybe it had something to do with hyunjin being a star athlete who had plenty of friends. that could explain it.)

  “you really wanna do this, heejin?” she blinks and finds herself back in the real world, standing in front of senior jung jinsoul, who may or may not be frowning down at her. they weren’t particularly close, but being mutual friends of girlfriends kim jiwoo and kim jungeun seemed to work (somehow). heejin hears someone approaching and turns around to see one ha sooyoung walking over, plastic bag in hand. there’s a loose-fitting grin on jinsoul’s face as the other senior makes her way over. “you got what we need?” lifting the bag up, sooyoung grins back and heejin is suddenly wary of what its contents might be. “yeah, it shouldn’t be too hard to set up.” she stands to the side in awkward silence as they mess around with some sort of soft material, fighting the urge to sneak a peek.

  heejin practically squeaks when sooyoung suddenly pushes her away, grinning as she covers her eyes. “no peeking or you’ll ruin the surprise!” she takes a step back and looks at the taller girl, heart starting to race at the mention of a “surprise”. she watches sooyoung run off with the bag secured in her arms, as if it were extremely important. she waits for a while before turning around and climbing up onto jinsoul’s car, carefully seating herself on the roof. jinsoul’s giving her a weird look, but doesn’t say anything. observing the senior in silence, heejin admires how well the sunlight compliments her features. (all she was doing was **literally** just standing there.) photography was never heejin’s “thing,” so instead of being rude, she pulls a notebook and pen out of her bag. it was much easier for the sophomore to memorize the “image” she was drawing while it was still there before her eyes. and before she knows it, she loses track of time as she sketches jinsoul with as much detail as possible.

  “hey, jinsoul! i’m all done!” heejin almost drags her pen straight across the paper in surprise, looking up to see sooyoung running back towards them. she frowns, upset that she could have ruined a masterpiece because of the older girl's sudden reappearance. quickly doodling a tiny rabbit in the corner alongside her initials, heejin tears the page out and puts her stuff away before coming down from the car's roof. sooyoung has a questioning look in her eyes as the younger girl approaches the duo. jinsoul quickly glances down and notices the paper, her curiosity getting the best of her. “were you drawing me, heejin?” sooyoung curiously glances between the two as a piece of paper is held out towards her best friend, pen ink all over the majority of it. “i didn't want to be rude and take a photo, so i decided to make a sketch instead." once the paper’s in her hands, jinsoul’s expression changes to one of awe. her eyes widen a bit as she examines the artwork, letting out a small “wow!” in the process. “this is really good, heejin! i’m impressed.” she’s quickly joined by the other senior, who steals a look at the sketch before letting out her own exclamation. “damn, heejin, that’s amazing!” said girl is too busy humbly accepting the praise to realize she was asked a question, to which sooyoung waves in her face.

  “ya, earth to jeon heejin.” both seniors are looking right at her and the height difference does nothing but make her a bit shy. “soo said you wanted to test out the house for us, but i thought you were a scaredy cat?” heejin takes a big gulp of oxygen as she wracks her mind for a sensible response. (all of her friends knew she was (usually) easy to scare or surprise, and most of them had be there to witness it on one occasion or another.) it feels a bit too short to have been less than an entire minute by the time heejin finally speaks up. “i-i am, it’s just… well…” she freezes up when sooyoung rolls her eyes at her, which eggs jinsoul on. “hold up, are you doing for someone you like? _is that what you’re trying to do_?” the shorter girl loses the ability to respond, freezing up much like a deer in headlights. the lack of a reply makes sooyoung laugh as jinsoul struggles to understand the deeper meaning behind heejin’s decision. “come on, gimme a name!”

  the conversation quickly starts going nowhere, with sooyoung’s loud laughter doing nothing to console a nervous heejin. “fine, i guess i’ll just have to ask jungeun since you won’t talk.” heejin feels her heart panic once more as she watches jinsoul type out what might as well be an entire paragraph. “ah, jinsoul unnie!” she takes a step closer and practically whines in the senior’s face, almost laughing when she makes a face at her. sooyoung does nothing to stop either one of them, amusedly watching heejin cling to jinsoul in a weak attempt to stop her. “i wouldn’t be doing this if you had just told me, heejin. besides, jungeun’s responding right now.” the sophomore pouts and lets go only to turn around and collapse on the floor, hunching over. sooyoung crouches down to give heejin a gentle pat on the back, almost as if she were saying ‘ _oh well, it could be worse_ ’. the upperclassman turns back to see jinsoul staring at her phone before glancing down at heejin, her mouth slightly agape as she rereads the text she just received.

  “hyunjin?! you have a crush on **kim hyunjin**?!” jinsoul dramatically (but gently) hits herself in the forehead with her palm, staring into the distance for a few moments. “please don’t say anything, jinsoul unnie…” her words fall on deaf ears as the older girl grins, as if the gears in her head finally start moving. “you’re definitely doing this to make her notice you, right? right?! oh my god, heejin!” sooyoung looks at the other girl in disbelief, getting up before interjecting. “hey, she’s a girl. she doesn’t have balls.” she gets an eye roll in return as jinsoul focuses on heejin again. said girl is exaggeratingly slumping over on herself, probably already half done with the two upperclassmen. jinsoul pats her on the shoulder as sooyoung stands to the side, quiet but slightly annoyed. “look, heejin, i just gotta say that you have _taste_. as do about a good chunk of your classmates, too, but that’s not the point.” there’s a glare on her face that jinsoul deliberately ignores, not caring if heejin genuinely looked intimidating in the heat of the moment. “so, like, are you going to test run this and then brag about it for her attention? or are you planning on talking her into it by bragging?” sooyoung rolls her eyes again and turns away from the (mostly) one-sided conversation. “i-i’m not going to brag! i was thinking, well, of letting people find out i did this, you know? maybe let it spread around and hope hyunjin finds out or something, i don’t know!” jinsoul chuckles as heejin finishes ranting about her half-baked idea, clearly amused with her response. reaching out, sooyoung grabs onto heejin’s wrist to lead her elsewhere while motioning for jinsoul to stay.

  once they were a relatively safe distance away from jinsoul, sooyoung leans in to whisper to the girl. “look, i don’t think you’ll be able to handle what jinsoul and i set up, bragging rights or not. think about this, heejin.” wrestling her arm out of sooyoung’s grip, she softly replies, “i don’t care, really. i said i’d do the test run and that’s exactly what i plan on doing, okay?” the look on the older girl’s face lets heejin know that she’s wrong, even when sooyoung sighs in defeat. “ugh, fine. but if anything goes wrong, don’t call us while crying your eyes out. got it?” heejin nods, of course. looking past heejin, sooyoung shouts at jinsoul; “hey, soul! pass the keys!” she catches the pair of keys in one simple movement, quickly passing them onto heejin. the girl turns them over in her hand as sooyoung carries on. “make sure you keep these safe, because that’s the only set jinsoul and i have. oh, and lock up before you leave, okay?” the senior walks away to join the other girl, leaving heejin standing alone as she watches them.

  “hey, you’re just going to leave me here?!” sooyoung waves her off as she opens the passenger door and shouts back, “don’t worry! you’re a big girl, heejin!” she doesn’t get a chance to reply back since the sound of the car engine drowns out the words in her throat. heejin watches jinsoul drive away, and after a minute or so, turns around to face the small two-story behind her. it’s not something out of a horror film with a old run-down look, but rather something that could be seen as cozy.

  the setting sun does nothing to make the house look cozy, especially since heejin knows its interior has been redecorated for the purpose of scaring the shit out of people. she hates the idea of a haunted house, really, but without a car or an excuse to back out of this, she has no choice but to go inside and test her limits. the moment she unlocks the door and takes a single step inside, heejin knows she’s done for. it’s pitch black and her eyes are still adjusting to the darkness as she closes the door and pulls out her phone. thank the gods for the iphone’s feature, which helps the girl look around the house’s darkened interior. she walks forward a bit, turning left and right in case something would pop out at her. it’s almost like karma is out to get her, because the moment she steps foot in the hallway, a prop werewolf springs to life from her right side, sending her backwards with a shriek. “fuck…” heejin takes a few deep breaths before checking her surrounding. there’s a small hallway to her right, but what is possibly the rest of the house is in front of her. she stands in place for a moment, contemplating the best way to avoiding dying from fright too soon. desperate and nervous as hell, heejin decides to check the hallway first.

  ‘ _better this side first, i guess…_ ’ there’s a door on her left that is covered in fake police tape, but is otherwise undecorated. it’s suspicious, but the girl still opens the door and pokes her phone inside first, holding her breath as she moves further at a turtle’s pace. initially, heejin assumes she’s in the clear as she lets out a heavy sigh. a few seconds later, a large, fake spider drops out from the ceiling and straight onto her head. reflexively panicking and screaming until it was off, heejin bumps into another prop–a plastic tree with more fake spiders on it. (suddenly she wishes she didn’t have the flashlight on.) on the verge of possibly hyperventilating, heejin scurries to the exit and quickly shuts the door behind her. having returned to to the tiny hallway, she leans back and closes her eyes, focusing on her erratic breathing and racing heartbeat. everything slows down to a normal rate in the span of a few minutes, and it’s then that the girl pushes herself off the door and backtracks to the beginning of the hallway. heejin unlocks her phone and stares at the screen, contemplating calling jiwoo or haseul to pick her up. either one of them-or maybe both-would definitely have something to say about her being in a haunted house. so, instead, she locks her phone and looks around at whatever her flashlight illuminates.

  it takes heejin much longer than it should have to get to the staircase leading up to the second floor, walking at a slower pace as she triple-checked her surroundings every few seconds. as she slowly made her way upwards, a part of her mind likened her situation to a terrible video game. ‘ _please don’t let there be a jump scare, oh god, please._ ’ somewhat parched from all the screaming and yelling, heejin swallowed her saliva as she felt her heart pounding against her ribcage. knowing jinsoul and sooyoung, there would definitely more frights waiting for her on the second floor. the first thing heejin notices is the copious amounts of fake webs in both hallways, soft like cotton but sticky like cotton candy. her hand is an immediate victim due to a subconscious instinct to reach out for the wall. “ew, what is this?” trying to rub the material off with her skirt only makes the situation so much worse. “no, no, no, oh god, no,” she whispers as she looks at her palm smeared in whatever the webs were made of. her skirt is just as ruined, and there’s only more of that stuff if she continues onwards. frowning in disgust, heejin takes her time checking both hallways before deciding on heading to the left this time around. working her way through the fake cobwebs as slowly and carefully as she could, heejin maneuvers around as best as she can. sadly, she gets a fair share of cobwebs stuck to her hair, body, backpack, and clothing by the time she reaches the end of the hallway. ‘ _well, so much for avoiding that, i guess._ ’

  checking her phone, heejin lets out a low-pitched whine that echoes throughout the hallway. “i should’ve brought a portable charger…” she whispers as her eyes flitter over the screen, displaying a battery percentage of 15 percent. brows furrowed, she instead moves towards one of the two doors closest to her. heejin screams again as she comes face-to-face with a literal clown from hell. turning back, she rushes out of the room and straight into the cobwebs she had been desperately trying to avoid. her screaming turns to whining as she realizes her mistake, standing in the pitch-black hallway covered in that mysterious material with a dying cell phone and no clue as to where to go. “fucking hell, ugh…” carefully, she makes her way over to what was hopefully the bathroom, holding in more noise as she walked past fake trees covered in all sorts of spiders with zombies all over the place. a pop-up vampire leaves her breathless and shaking, to which she quickly but hesitantly starts opening each door as she passes by. after a supposed eternity, heejin finds the bathroom and sneaks inside. ‘ _at least they left the bathroom untouched, i guess…_ ’ she lets out a heavy sigh and reaches out for the lightswitch. of course it would lead to a sporadic rhythm of flickering and blinking. waiting for her eyes to adjust to the crappy lighting, heejin stares at her own reflection in disbelief and disappointment. she looks like someone who just had white silly string or something similar sprayed all over, and it’s only more upsetting just thinking about having to clean up at home. “stupid unnies, gosh…” with her flashlight off, her phone’s battery isn’t dying as quickly anymore.

   she makes the grave mistake of glancing downwards and spotting some realistic fake blood in the sink, making her breath hitch as she takes a few moment to hastily re-collect her thoughts. “okay, it’s okay. i can just rinse it out.” heejin nods to herself as she reaches to turn the faucet, almost immediately taken aback. it was as if the water had come straight from the north pole–cold beyond belief. shrieking, heejin pulled her hands back and rushed to turn the water off, watching as it simply made the sink look so much worse than it already did. glancing around, she finds a tiny hand towel that seems to have been forgotten and ignored while the house was being decorated. with her hands cleaned, heejin decides to simply head back out the way she came–or rather, that was her plan before realizing she had somehow accidentally trapped herself inside. “no, no! come on!” both hands were on the doorknob as she struggled to get the door open, frowning at her predicament. it wouldn’t budge for some reason, and there was no visible lock on the knob. pouting, the girl quickly unlocks her phone and searches for jo haseul’s number, giving zero fucks as she hits the call button. the dial tone seems to be another terror for heejin, making her feel more desperate than before. “come on, answer the phone! please, come on…” a moment of silence suddenly envelopes her as the noise cuts off before haseul’s voice erupts through the line.

 _“heejin? why are you up so late? is something wrong?”_ perhaps she sounds more on edge than she initially assumed. “unnie! my phone is dying, but i’m stuck in this stupid bathroom in this haunted house and i’m scared like crazy! please come pick me up, **please**!” the mental weight of being in one of her worst nightmares finally starts to hit her as her voice cracks. “i don’t know what to do, haseul unnie! this whole place is scary and i just wanna go home!” she bites her lip and holds back her fear when haseul starts hushing her. _“i honestly don’t know what to say right now, heejin. i’m sort of grounded, so i can’t leave to go get you. i’m sorry, but give me the address and i’ll see if i can contact someone who’ll go get you.”_ heejin skims through her thoughts and just barely remembers the address of the house, reciting it for haseul, who is probably busy writing it down. “please hurry, unnie.” _“i will! just hang tight and don’t worry.”_ and with that, haseul ends the call, leaving heejin in total silence once again. this time, it’s a bit worse. feeling tears prick at the edges of her eyes, heejin sits down against the bathroom door and hugs her knees. maybe she should have just listened to sooyoung instead of her blind ego, even if it meant getting clowned over it for days.

  checking her phone again, it’s then that heejin realizes it's gotten late. perhaps taking her time and going slow was a bad move, because if she was doing the math correctly, then she had spent nearly an hour in there already. the moon was probably already somewhere up in the sky, which meant heejin was going to be in for it when she got home. she's just about ready to take a nap and give up when her phone lights up, showing a new text message from none other than jung jinsoul. [ _“hey! haseul just called me. did you get stuck in the upstairs bathroom btw? just sit tight and wait, heejin! help is on the way!”_ ] not bothering to reply, heejin puts the phone on the floor and takes off her backpack to place on her lap. she doesn’t hesitate to open it and pull out a small stitch plushie, gently placing it on the bathroom floor before closing the bag and slinging it around her shoulders again. hugging the plushie close, heejin rests her head on her knees and falls asleep to the sound of absolutely nothing.

[ a phone rings, startling a girl from doing her homework as she reaches over to check the caller id. “jinsoul unnie! what’s up?” _“hey, hyunjin! can you do me a favor?”_ there’s a moment of silence as she contemplates her decision, replying in fair wariness. “what do you want?” it seemed quite suspicious for jinsoul to reply near instantaneously, seeing as she usually took her time doing so. _“you know that house i was helping redecorate recently? okay, so a friend of mine agreed to give it a test run, and, well… she kinda got stuck inside the upstairs bathroom. would you mind playing ‘knight in shining armor’? please?”_ hyunjin hesitates, unsure of everything jinsoul’s told her in the past twenty seconds of the phone call. _“hey, come on! i’ll buy you bread for the rest of the week!”_ scratch that, perhaps jinsoul was making sense after all. there’s a slight frown as hyunjin asks, “so, where’s this house at? i'll go get a jacket and some shoes.” ]

  there’s an odd sound in the distance that wakes heejin, her eyesight a bit blurred from her nap. it’s faint, but it sounds like someone or something approaching the house from the frontside. reaching up to rub her eyes, she grabs her phone to check the time. she’d been asleep for nearly twenty minutes, and jinsoul hadn’t sent another text, making heejin suspicious. with her plushie close to her chest, she gets up to check the doorknob once more. it’s still jammed, forcing heejin to impatiently wait for help. she almost forgets that someone might have entered the house by then because she doesn’t hear anyone open the door or call out for her. hopefully it wasn’t a monster. a sudden creaking noise nearby catches heejin’s attention, and her eyes immediately widen in response to someone screaming. it’s as if she really was in a slasher film or horror game and suddenly it’s the last thing heejin wants to experience in her relatively short (?) life. “ **oh my god…** ” heejin slowly backs away from the door as she hears footsteps from somewhere else within the confines of the house. the grip on her plushie tightens as she impulsively flinches at another scream. ‘ _who the hell did jinsoul unnie even send?_ ’

  everything goes quiet again and heejin seriously contemplates that her possible savior might have actually died from fright. the thought makes her wonder if she’ll be stuck in the bathroom until morning, hungry and scared and down in the dumps. a sudden thump from the staircase has heejin back up against the wall, frightened as tears form at the edges of her eyes. she impulsively screams when the doorknob shakes, turning away as a voice yells out to her. “hey, i’m here to help! are you okay?” the person shakes the doorknob again before speaking. the voice sounds familiar, but heejin is more focused on getting out of and away from the house. “i-i’m fine! i couldn’t get the door to open, and it’s stuck.” approaching the door slowly, she pauses when she hears more noise from the opposing side. “i’m gonna try to open the door, okay? just, um, just stay back!” she does exactly that and holds her plushie like a lifeline as her savior tries to get the door to budge. it really likes being a pain in the ass, it seems, because it doesn’t have a lock and yet is stuck beyond belief. heejin wonders how she’ll be saved when she hears something bump against the door with force. it happens again after a few seconds, to which heejin watches the door shake with wide eyes. she can hear the other person saying something, although it’s muffled and quickly cut off by more noise. ‘ _you’ve got to be kidding me… they’re gonna break the door down?!'_

  officially hitting her panic button, heejin tries to fit as much space between herself and door as possible. before she can try to calm herself down, the door practically breaks off one of its hinges as it swings open, hitting the wall as part of the knob falls off. the other person is sweating–probably from the effort put into getting the door open. heejin realizes that screaming like a murder victim was probably _not_ how she should have greeted her hero. said hero was, in fact, the one and only kim hyunjin, all-around star athlete with a love for bread and cats. it just had to be heejin’s luck for her to finally interact with her crush in the worst possible situation she could have hoped for. not only did she have to be rescued from a dingy bathroom in a haunted house, but she was on the verge of crying while hugging her beloved plushie. (probably the exact definition of immature and weak.) panicking, heejin tried to calm herself down as hyunjin hesitantly approached her. “um, you’re okay, right?” “ _i-i’m fine_! other than being hungry and tired and scared with a dying phone... i’ve been better, yeah.” she catches notice of hyunjin’s eyes looking her over and shrinks away a bit, suddenly shy.

  “i take it you got caught up in all that shit out there, huh?” heejin looks at the other girl in confusion before realizing she was pointing at her clothing, to which she looks at her in return. it seemed like hyunjin ran into a similar situation, seeing as she was also somewhat covered in the fake cobwebs. suddenly the situation doesn’t seem all that dire as heejin giggles, agreeing; “i could say to same to you.” following heejin’s finger, hyunjin notices and smiles in response, laughing at the coincidence. the sound grabs the shorter girl’s attention and she’s left stunned at how soft and clear hyunjin’s laughter sounds. when she realizes heejin is staring, hyunjin stutters as she tries to respark the conversation. “um, so… let’s go? the front door is unlocked.” “ah! right…” heejin is escorted out of the bathroom but quickly puts herself back against hyunjin’s side once she recalls where she’s at. being with someone else made her feel safer. hyunjin glances down at her, curiously questioning her. “say, are you in my grade or something? i’m pretty sure i’ve seen you in class before.” suddenly shy, heejin holds her plushie close and replies, “yeah, we have the same homeroom, **kim hyunjin**.” there’s a faint glint in her eyes that can be seen even in the dark hallway as she grins, lips barely curling upwards. “so you know my name, huh?” heejin’s breath hitches as the other girl’s face comes closer to her own (perhaps a bit too close). “you think i can guess yours, then?” heejin tries to put on her best poker face and replies with a soft “go for it,” hoping for hyunjin to fall for her weak bluff.

  she can't clearly see her face in the darkness, but she takes a pot shot and assumes she’s deep in thought. after a minute or so, she gets her reply. “... aren’t you in charge of the track club? jeon heejin, right?” the breath is stolen right from her throat, heart stopped dead in its tracks. she was an absolute fool to think hyunjin wouldn’t recognize her when they were in the same class, honestly. staring back at her, heejin mumbles a confirmation, to which she swears hyunjin grins at. “yeah, i’ve seen you around, too. i didn’t think you were the person jinsoul unnie was telling me about, though.” the mention of the older girl gets her attention as she chimes in. “wait, _you’re_ the person jinsoul unnie said she was sending? oh my gosh...” heejin scoffs in disbelief before running a hand through her hair, momentarily forgetting about everything else. hyunjin frowns and takes a step back, hands grabbing at the hem of her sweater. (it doesn’t make sense–not yet, though.) “is that… is that a **bad** thing, jeon? maybe i should just go, ‘cause i already got you out of there.” her head is bowed, and even thoughheejin can’t see her properly doesn’t mean she can’t hear the hurt in her words. she reaches out for the taller girl’s arm just as she starts moving away, already tasting the regret. she can see hyunjin look back at her smaller form, probably confused at her reaction. heejin keeps her plushie close as she takes another step towards her classmate, whispering, “i’m sorry, i didn’t mean it like that. i was just surprised, you know?” she grips onto the sleeve, rubbing the material with her fingertips.

  hyunjin starts walking off, to which heejin decides to follow blindly, refusing to let her apology die out unreciprocated. she does, however, flinch at just about anything and everything that comes into contact with her body. for the time being, screaming was off-limits ~~(and not just so she wouldn’t scare hyunjin by accident)~~. the duo reach the bottom of the staircase after five minutes, something heejin feels oddly proud of. it’s definitely weird, but she ignores any thoughts about it as hyunjin leads her towards the front of the house. the mood is destroyed as a skeletal hand brushes up against heejin’s shoulder, to which she screams and rushes forward into hyunjin’s back. the sudden contact makes her scream as well, turning around with her phone’s flashlight as heejin grabs onto her hoodie. the two look around and take notice of the prop that is somehow secured to the wall. hyunjin makes the mistake of shedding more light upon their surroundings, revealing fake bugs and blood on the floor. and that was just a portion of what they saw. “oh god, ew, ew, ew!” heejin whines and clutches onto the other girl, drawing a yelp from hyunjin as they start backing away. “hey, _calm down_!” the taller girl’s plea is ignored as heejin struggles to pull her along, although it is without any way of knowing what was in her way. after a minute or so of complaining and arguing, hyunjin manages to get heejin to calm down. she ends up clinging onto her sleeve again, moving closer every single time something gets too close.

  “you know, i never figured you were such a clingy person, **jeon**.” the comment makes heejin hesitate before she realizes what hyunjin was saying, to which she frowns. “yeah, well… _you let me!_  i’ve never seen people hug you and stuff, so what does that say about _you_ , **kim**?” she senses hyunjin stiffening, as if a nerve was struck. they stop moving in the middle of the living room, all too aware of each other in what little space they’re sharing. ‘ _this isn’t safe..._ ’ heejin can faintly make out hyunjin’s arm as she scratches at her head, probably glancing back at her afterwards despite the near-total lack of lighting. she loosens her grip and tries to steady her breathing in time for hyunjin’s reply. there was no way she was going to be unprepared for something like this. “... maybe you’re the only exception i’d allow. why would cling to me if we _barely_ know each other?” heejin barely hears all of her words, but she knows it stole her breath anyways. (did she really say that? it seems like something out of a dream, but this is reality...) eyes widening, she takes a step closer and struggles to give a proper response. “i… i don’t know, maybe… maybe i just feel comfortable around you, hyunjin.” the two stand still and say nothing, hesitating to speak first but wanting the other to. heejin almost wants to yell at hyunjin for not replying back, wants to shake her and demand she give her opinion.

  being left hanging in a conversation as important as this one nearly drives the girl insane, but so does being surprised. hyunjin turns around just enough to face heejin without disrupting the hold she has on her, hesitating to shine some light on the girl standing behind her. “hey,” she whispers, immediately pausing as she tries to figure out what to say next. she licks her lips and falls short of continuing, gaining heejin’s curiosity just as her mind starts to wander. it’s dead silent between the two, and it takes what hyunjin assumes is a glare for her to (try to) continue speaking. “um… i don’t know how to say this, actually.” hyunjin nervously laughs, shyly bowing her head for a moment as she tried to complete her thoughts. she notices heejin looking at her and immediately turns away, awkwardly starting to drag her along. “c-come on! i think we’ve been for too long, you know? let’s go!” the two girls continue on their way to the entrance, silently avoiding any more frights as hyunjin keeps their path illuminated. heejin can just barely see the door up ahead and almost breaks into a wide smile, excited to finally breathe some fresh air again. moving to hyunjin’s side, she tries to keep from running forward. “we’re almost there, _come on_!” her eagerness gets the best of her as she rushes forward, pulling hyunjin by the arm. just as she reaches the door, she hears the other girl momentarily scream before something suddenly pulls on her, threatening to drag her down to the cold floor. stumbling to the side, heejin turns back and finds hyunjin crouched on the floor, as if she had just caught herself from completely collapsing. breathing heavily, she notices the shock in her eyes and turns to see the same prop that had initially frightened her earlier.

  the surprise she feels makes her laugh as hyunjin gets up, dusting herself off as she follows heejin to the door. “what’s so funny, jeon?” they’re stepping outside and heejin turns back to look at hyunjin once she’s finished locking the door, surprised to see her frowning in confusion. the moon hasn’t risen too far yet, but its gentle light makes hyunjin’s soft cat-like features look prettier than heejin recalls. blushing because she’s focusing on her crush again, heejin slowly lets go of hyunjin’s sweater and ends up smiling at her instead. “it’s nothing, i just–you looked a bit funny, getting scared like that.” she laughs again when hyunjin struggles to figure out if that was a compliment or not, brows furrowing in the process. looking down, heejin focuses on a rock that she can kick around while avoiding more eye contact with her classmate. (because if she stares at hyunjin’s eyes one more time, she’ll probably burst into flames. maybe this has just been some insane dream, having her crush come to her rescue and being able to be oh so close to her.) “so…” heejin blinks, tilting her head upwards just enough where she can see hyunjin awkwardly stuffing her hands in her sweater’s pocket. “i-i guess i’ll see you tomorrow, then?” she stares at hyunjin, surprised again, but this time at the awkwardness of her words. still kicking around the rocks on the ground, heejin moves past her shyness and looks up at the other girl. she’s hoping she doesn't notice the light blush on her face, but it doesn’t exactly matter at the moment.

  suddenly heejin doesn’t feel like parting ways just yet. “yeah, i guess so. i’ll see you in class, hyunjin.” the space between them becomes awkward again as she smiles at hyunjin before walking towards the street. hopefully she won’t get yelled at for staying out late or getting dirty beyond belief. the sidewalk is just a few steps away when heejin realizes hyunjin is running after her, to which she turns around a moment too late. all heejin sees at first is her tall classmate’s soft pink hoodie and her long legs, which throws her for a loop. (she definitely doesn’t remember hyunjin having either of those-or did she just never notice?) she takes a half-step back as hyunjin slows to a stop in front of her, breathing heavily as she tries to speak. “hey… um, you know… we–we don’t talk, but, maybe we could… i don’t know, exchange numbers? you seem like an interesting person, heejin.” said girl is standing there, eyes wide as she tries to process what hyunjin just told her. ‘ _s-she’s kidding… right?'_  she doesn’t know how long it takes for her to finally react, fumbling as she unlocks her dying phone and opens a new contact. passing it to hyunjin, she then takes the other girl’s phone in return and types out her number. looking at the contact name, she puts her entire name on it, unsure of what hyunjin would want. the two finish swapping phone numbers and heejin gives hyunjin one last smile for the night. “well, i’ll see you tomorrow, then. goodnight, hyunjin.” “yeah, i’ll see you later. bye, heejin.”

  she can’t help but smile back at hyunjin before finally turning around and walking down the street in the direction of her house. it’s hard to fight the urge to yell, to fistpump the air in a celebration only she is celebrating. but heejin is happy beyond relief, because even though she’s decided to give her upperclassmen a piece of her mind when she next sees them, she’s _happy_. happy she finally got to talk to her crush, to be right in front of her and not instantly melt into a puddle of shy gayness. hyunjin watches her walk away and disappear into the night before turning around to walk in the opposing direction. hands in her sweater pocket, she softly laughs into empty air as she heads home for the night. who would have guessed that she would meet a cute girl from her class at a haunted house of all places?

perhaps heejin’s plan ended up working out for the both of them after all-whether it was her original intention or not. perhaps being strangers wasn’t such a bad way for them to finally meet. perhaps...

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading this~ hmu on that bird app on either my main (@sarangaaaaay) or my writing account (@chocopanyan)


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